his name was lawrence walsh, and walsh's charge was to go investigate the iran contra affair and explorehether there were any civil or whether there should be any charges brought against anyone, either civilly or criminally. now, this was a joint congressional committee that was formed along with the independent commission. the independent counsel. how frequent were joint committees formed of both senate and house members on this? this was quite unusual. there certainly have been joint committees, bicameral efforts in some instances, but this was pretty unusual. they were to select committees, one created in the house, one created in the senate, and what they agreed to do was to hold joint hearings. so they would pursue their investigations, collaborate with each other. but then hold joint hearings and so that so that the, you know, the sort of the public record they were creating and the way they were informing the public would be a little more efficient, a little more coherent in one joint hearing or a series of hearings rather than having separate hearings. jim townsend a few weeks ag